Learnlets

Secondary

Clark Quinn’s Learnings about Learning

Future of the Book?

30 July 2008 by Clark 7 Comments

Last nite was the NextNow event on the future of the book/publishing/? Jay Cross really helped by adding significant data around and input to the discussion; a very public thanks.   He’s also blogged it, with video.   We had a very diverse audience of around 30 or so; many were authors, there were CEOs & entrepeneurs, artists and musicians, noted scientists, and more. Many shared one or more of my own publishing experiences, including as author, board member of a not-for-profit that publishes, editorial board member of a journal, and, of course, as a blogger.

After introductions, which already raised many issues, Jay walked us through the history of the book (Guttenberg was an entrepreneur, the first totable book was sized to fit in saddle bags), and we talked about the pros and cons of books.   We discussed our varied experiences with publishers, and there were quite a few unhappy ones.   Then we got into the issues.

As I mentioned earlier, Jay and I had come up with a few, including editorial ‘voice’ (who’s vetting the information), interactivity, volatility, ownership, and money.   Interestingly, as the discussion continued, others emerged.   Michael Carter raised an interesting point, that we were conversing about books and publishers, and they’re not the same things, and that it was really about matching ignorance with knowledge.   He also mentioned that the current chapter and book size is arbitrary, which is something I’ve seen in textbooks.   Christine Walker mentioned how our cognition might change without the book experience.   There was considerable optimism about setting information free, which I didn’t squelch with my concern about the need for ‘filters’.

We covered the ‘collected papers’ model, where proactive instructors or good editors choose appropriate contributions to a definitive compilation (with my note that most instructors just want to choose a text, and there are compilations that are just vanity projects without a representative or definitive sampling for the topic).   We also talked about marketplaces, and Laleh Shahidi mentioned a learning object model of content, of which there’ve been several experiments (including Propagate, a system that Peter Higgs launched way back around 1998!).   One of the ideas would be to have several authors to choose from, but then you’d need ‘templates’ for topics, with agreed structure.   One of the current situations is that authors present totally different takes on subjects.

At the end, it appeared that publishing is about 4 things:

  • development: the right choice of message and author for the knowledge gap
  • production: the right choice of presentation of the information
  • marketing: the right marketing of availability to need
  • money: the business model that surrounds the first three

The interesting thing is that with the internet (and on-demand printing), the production costs have essentially hit zero. There’s clearly a role for editorial choice, but at some point everyone can publish, and we need ways to find what we want, which is really about the marketing, which was clearly where many authors (including yours truly) felt that they were let down.   We heard of an interesting experiment in viral marketing, with Amy Jussell mentioning a blog-produced book. The question is whether such an effort is replicable. Of course, there’s still the cachet that comes with having a publisher choosing.   The flip-side is tha traditional publishers still take months from final manuscript to final print.

So, no answers, but lots of interesting issues.

Comments

  1. bill daul says

    30 July 2008 at 2:23 PM

    Clark,

    Excellent capture of the night…thanks for the notes and for your contributions!

    -b

  2. dave davison says

    31 July 2008 at 7:10 AM

    Clark: Bill Daul invited me to come, but I was unable to attend the session,so I am glad to have your cogent summary from the NN Collaboratory meeting on the Future of the Book. Amy Jussel and I are both “contributors” to the Age of Conversation (version 2) collection . I criticized the editors of the first version for lacking editorial filtering and then agreed to contribute to a slightly more organized version 2 soon to be published. Since AOC is published in ebook form it provides some basic topical structure but will still be underedited I expect and the viral marketing process is being driven by the editors who are Marketing or PR professionals.

    When I first started blogging in April 2006 I was thinking about the “networked book” to collect the experiences and images of the talented folks who do visual interpreting in organizational settings. Here is one of my first posts on the concept.

    http://thoughts-illustrated.blogspot.com/2006/04/ti-at-work-in-group-settings.html

    This book is still a concept, but I am working with my colleagues on a new collaborative publication with the working title “The Seventh Discipline”

    I think, to follow your comment..” We heard of an interesting experiment in viral marketing, with Amy Jussell mentioning a blog-produced book. The question is whether such an effort is replicable.”

    I believe that collaborative networked books are The Future of the Book, and that the process if structured right can be the way for “the rest of us” to participate in creating these artifacts.

  3. Shaping Youth says

    31 July 2008 at 8:24 AM

    Clark, wish you could ‘live blog’ some of the events I attend, as you’re spot on with your recaps!

    Amy Jussel here, adding my two cents on the blog-book-anthology effort that we did for Variety, the Children’s Charity.

    Wanted to give you the background and backstory of some of the viral/mktg. links we’re using for Age of Conversation, so here are a few posts with the full scoop, in case it helps. (It’s now on Amazon, but had to be ‘marked up’ significantly, which makes it rather unaffordable esp. since it’s a 100% unpaid charity effort. (their exposure makes it necessary tho, another ‘distribution/publishing’ issue!)

    This one is about the goal to push the ranking up on Amazon with a bum’s rush/author’s push using social media to try to gain visibility http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=1285

    This one is celebrating the $11,000 in 60 days: http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=626

    This one is a primer ‘how to’ http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=544
    And this is where it started as an ‘e-book’ prior to even being bound in paperback and hardback and Amazon: http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=412

    Finally, here’s the second edition list of authors, policy, procedures, where you can follow the 2008 tactics, which should include some fun, fresh ones, too! http://www.ageofconversation.com/

    Thanks again, Clark for adding to the NextNow Conversation! Best,

    Amy Jussel, Founder
    http://www.ShapingYouth.org

  4. Dave Gendron says

    31 July 2008 at 9:19 AM

    Clark,

    I haven’t been to a NextNow meet for a few years. I really wish I attended this one. I thought I would write down a few thoughts about books.

    I can’t think of many things that are more important to civilization than books. This topic is so important that it warrants a series of conversations – not about books themselves or the process of their publication but about their role in civilization.

    When looking to the future of something, like books, I tend to look at the past. In this instance, if we bypass the word “book” and broaden the topic by using something like “portable compilations of information” we might get a different perspective on what might lie ahead.

    What first comes to mind is the Nadi’s of India. These libraries are written on palm leaves, strung together. I believe they were written with pins that were dipped in powdered carbon. They are ancient. I understand they are preserved by rubbing them with peacock oil occasionally. Peacock oil? Certainly hundred and maybe thousands of years old.

    http://www.himalayanacademy.com/resources/books/agamas/palm-leaf-demo/palm-leaf-samples/Palm-leaf_001.jpg
    http://www.himalayanacademy.com/resources/books/agamas/palm-leaf-demo/

    I remember meeting with a member of the family that maintains the “Suka Nadi”, the library of Sukadeva’s cognitions that is over five thousand years old. Sit down for this – the Suka Nadi contains astrological predictions for everyone who would ever visit the Nadi and asks for a reading. Suka, the son of the famous historian Veda Vyasa, was fully enlightened and could see into the future. Anyway, here in the Suka Nada was my name, birthdate and the date that I would arrive for my reading! Twenty years later I can say that the reading was 100 percent accurate. A historical record of the future that brings direct, personal benefit to the reader. Now that’s a book.

    Then there are the ancient cylinder seals of Sumer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylinder_seal They are like rolling pins with images carved, intaglio, into them. When you roll the seal across wet clay a pictogram appears, pregnant with meaning. They don’t have pages or ISBN numbers but couldn’t we call them books? They don’t rot or get dog eared pages and they can be printed on demand.

    This brings to mind a story a friend told me about another ancient civilization. The priesthood had secrets they wanted recorded but not available to the common man. They wrote their manuscripts using oil instead of ink. The oil would spread out on the parchment and be unreadable to those with pedestrian consciousness. Yet there would be an accurate recording of the writing impressed into the subtle tissue of space/time that could only be accessed by those with refined consciousness. The paperless office has been around for a long time. I wonder if they used peacock oil?

    All these compilations are techniques of recording higher dimensional meaning onto lower dimensional media. When we apply our attention to them the meaning unfolds in our awareness like a blossoming flower. The potency of the higher dimensional meaning is made manifest. The consciousness of the writer steps down into matter to tell its story to the consciousness of the reader. Its just consciousness talking to itself through bits of clay, paper and maybe a dash of peacock oil.

    Let’s invent new gardens where consciousness can talk to itself in future generations.

  5. Clark says

    31 July 2008 at 11:52 AM

    Thanks so much for the pointers and deep thoughts! Collaborative networked books may well be a way that consciousness can manifest itself to future generations. Love Dave D’s point about editing, often a place where things fall down. And I laud Amy’s viral marketing approach, I ponder if it might be harder to countenance such tactics for things that aren’t philanthropic! Still, for efforts to find new ways to communicate, may a thousand gardens blossom.

  6. Shaping Youth says

    31 July 2008 at 12:09 PM

    Ah…so poetic, Clark!

    I also agree with Dave’s point about “editing” for certain; it’ll be interesting to see how they do with the ‘part two’ AOC book with double the number of probono authors, because I’m wary some of the essays may fall into the self-promo category; though supposedly, the editors say that’ll get ’em bounced.

    On the collaboration issue, I don’t see why we couldn’t do a NextNow collaborative consciousness book and sell it on Amazon to help fund the org itself with all the heavy hitters and thought leaders we have in our group!

    It’s certainly a FAR deeper conversation with Doug Engelbart et al than my Shaping Youth kids’ ethics and marcom arena in the AOC endeavor! I keep thinking we need a ‘speakers bureau’ of Next Now-ers, because folks would pay to hear some of the leading edge thought-meisters in our humble lil’ group.

    Alternatively, we could each contribute a NN chapter and use it as a ‘membership giveaway’ for NextNow to go to the next level of sustaining itself as a ‘value-added’ proposition? Or to also go after grants in the innovation/education arena like the TED talks and such? —I know Bill’s been looking for ways to structure and balance the ‘invitation only’ social network models with tiered academic affordability and open access…

    The idea hamster in me is kickin’ in…lookout! ;-)

    Amy Jussel, Founder/E.D.
    http://www.shapingyouth.org

Trackbacks

  1. On literacy says:
    16 December 2020 at 1:20 PM

    […] Cross and Clark Quinn hosted a session this week on The Future of the […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Clark Quinn

The Company

Search

Feedblitz (email) signup

Never miss a post
Your email address:*
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

Pages

  • About Learnlets and Quinnovation

The Serious eLearning Manifesto

Manifesto badge

Categories

  • design
  • games
  • meta-learning
  • mindmap
  • mobile
  • social
  • strategy
  • technology
  • Uncategorized
  • virtual worlds

Blogroll

  • Charles Jennings
  • Christy Tucker
  • Connie Malamed
  • Dave's Whiteboard
  • Donald Clark's Plan B
  • Donald Taylor
  • Harold Jarche
  • Julie Dirksen
  • Kevin Thorn
  • Mark Britz
  • Mirjam Neelen & Paul Kirschner
  • Stephen Downes' Half an Hour

License

Previous Posts

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006

Amazon Affiliate

Required to announce that, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Mostly book links. Full disclosure.